The opening night audience of "Run For Your Wife," presented by Camwood Players, rewarded the hard-working cast with quiet chuckles and out-loud guffaws as the storyline twisted and turned through Ray Cooney's British farce.

The play continues Friday and Saturday nights through May 30 at the Stillaguamish Grange, 6521 Pioneer Hwy. in Stanwood. The May 30 performance includes a dinner theater option, and all shows begin at 8 p.m.

The frantic comedy tells the story of an ordinary London cabbie, John Smith, who happens to have extraordinary marriage problems-he's married to two women at the same time, in the same town. When he's mugged and ends up in the hospital, his careful scheduling quickly flies out the window. Once the police get involved, the deceptions and half-truths, many of them preposterously funny, really begin to pile up.

Gregg Hays does his usual admirable work as the bumbling Smith, seemingly making up the whole thing as he goes along. The desperation that lies just beneath his friendly surface bubbles up just enough to arouse suspicion from the two policemen investigating the apparent assault and address mix-up. Justin Gau as Detective Troughton keeps a stiff upper lip throughout the whole madcap mess, and Brett Stockwell, Det. Porterhouse, is reminiscent of Monty Python's Michael Palin as he good-naturedly investigates Smith's increasingly ridiculous stories.

The wives, played by Patti Sands and Julie Sterling, give standout performances. Sands, in particular, is sympathetic and shrill at the same time, and her wide-eyed responses to the events unfolding around her get more and more incredulous as she watches her "ordinary" life fall apart.

Upstairs neighbors of the two different households add another element of mayhem to the play. George Carter, who also directed the show, plays Stanley Gardner, an unemployed bachelor who is soon mimicking a Scottish brogue and pretending to be a farmer. As Bobby Franklin, a flaming-gay neighbor who is oblivious to the drama in the households, Scott Randall commands the stage, and his outrageous outfit adds to the character's impact.

The set, which is supposed to represent two separate London flats, is a little confusing, and some of Cooney's dialogue was downright awful, but that's not the fault of the players.

To their credit, all the actors seemed to be giving it their all, running and diving and crawling and collapsing with zest. While it's not one of the best farces in the catalog, "Run For Your Wife" definitely delivers laughs.